Coale Leads USA to Gold

OC alumna Sherri Coale (87) coached the USA women’s basketball team to a gold medal at the World University Games in July.

The USA beat Russia, playing before a partisan home crowd in Kazan, Russia, 90-71 in the championship game.

“As I stood on the medal stand with my team and staff watching the American flag rise slowly to the top of the pole, I felt an enormous sense of pride and I wondered how Olympians’ hearts kept from popping right out of their chests,” Coale wrote on soonersports.com.

The tournament was Coale’s first head coaching assignment for USA Basketball. She was an assistant coach for the 2001 junior team that won bronze.